“Is College Worth It?” The answer is yes only if you chose wisely. College graduates had, on average, over $32,000 of debt upon graduation in the spring of 2013. The major on their degree had a lot to do with their ability to earn an attractive living and manage that debt.

Source: American Institutes for Research. An analysis of the earnings of recent college graduates in five states finds that those who went to elite institutions do not necessarily earn higher salaries than their peers, that some certificates and associate degrees are far more lucrative than four year degrees, and that when it comes to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), students who study biology or chemistry will earn far less than those in the other three fields.

The traditional sequence for individuals going to a college or university has been University – Major – Degree – Career. The reality is that for over half of those receiving a bachelor degree in America the sequence is actually more like: College – Major 1 – Major 2 – Major 3 – College 2 – Major 4 – Degree (finally) and then look for a job.

Has this been your experience? There a couple of things to observe about this typical sequence. The first thing is how much emphasis is placed on the reputation of the college or university. It is as though getting into a prestigious university is all one needs to do to have the golden ticket to a successful life. What we see in the BUZZ Today here is that this is not true. The research shows that the major/career you select is far more important to your earnings future.

So if being accepted by an elite (highly selective university) does not assure you of economic success, what does it tell you? Being accepted by a highly selective university tells you that you are among the smartest people in the country. That is nice to know this and does tend to make one feel good about ones self. But in the end, you are smart whether you go to university A or a less prestigious school B. Your smartness goes with you, it doesn’t stay with the university you decide to attend. The bottom line is that you do not have to pay the high tuition costs of the elite university when it comes to having the best chances of making a decent living. Conversely, you are not destined to a substandard living standard if you do not get to go to Harvard or Yale. What is far more important than where you go is what you study – your major.

The major you select is closely tied to the career you are targeting for yourself. To pick the right career you first must know “who you are” – something I discuss in detail in my book “Your Future is Calling.” I will defer a more detailed discussion of the “who you are” challenge for a later post. For now lets return to the career/major discussion.

The amount of earning power related to specific majors/degrees is truly amazing. Data from the very valuable web site CollegeMeasures is loaded with very important information about what specific majors and careers are actually worth in the real world. For now let me leave you with one direct comparison for bachelor graduates in the state of Virginia. On average, such graduates with a psychology degree (one of the most popular majors in American universities) had first year earnings of $29,040 compared to first year average earnings of $51,378 with an engineering degree.

In conclusion for this post:

1. You need to learn to prosper

2. What you study is far more important to your income than where you study.

3. You can save a lot of your education expenses by avoiding Major – Major – Major in combination with selecting your career/major before enrolling in any specific program or any university.